F1 Fanatic round-up: 15/5/2010

Long-time F1 Fanatic readers will have noticed something missing from the build-up articles for the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix. I’m sad to say that Journeyer, who has written a series of excellent historical features on different drivers and races, will not be contributing to the site for the foreseeable future as he has a lot of other work on at the moment.

Links

Nicolas Todt: ?óÔé¼?ôMany people will say that we are favoured. But in fact it?óÔé¼Ôäós an added handicap. It?óÔé¼Ôäós up to us to come up with such a strong bid that the choice of the FIA cannot be in doubt.?óÔé¼?Ø

“Due to the low average speed, Monaco is much more about mechanical grip than aero; this is an area where misconceptions exist. Wheelbase, although its a fundamental fact that shorter vehicles have tighter turning circles, in F1 terms wheelbase account for very little at Monaco. With wheelbases over three metres, the difference in team?óÔé¼Ôäós wheelbases is just a few percent and not enough to?úÔé¼Ôé¼have a primary advantage over the other factors differentiating the cars. Long wheelbase cars have won at Monaco and in testing teams and drivers have never found wheelbase a key factor through tight turns.”

“Team principal Martin Whitmarsh confirmed that Fry, who originally joined McLaren in 1993, was leaving the Woking-based operation but said he reckons there was enough strength in depth at the outfit to overcome his loss.”

Comment of the day

This isn?óÔé¼Ôäót the first time F1 cars have been slower than other racing series on the same circuit ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ back in the glory days of Japanese F3000 in the early 1990s Ross Cheever managed a time at Suzuka that would have put him fourth on the grid for that year?óÔé¼Ôäós Japanese GP in a standard Reynard F3000 chassis (albeit with super sticky Bridgestone tyres). The Peugeot 905 Group C car was not far off F1 pace at Magny Cours, I also seem to recall.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Jonny!

On this day in F1

Elio de Angelis lost his life in a testing accident in France on this day in 1986. De Angelis spent most of his career driving for Lotus but had joined Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team at the end of 1985.

Going through the flat-out Verriere S-bend at the start of the lap de Angelis lost control of his car – most likely due to a rear wing failure – and went off at such speed that he went over the crash barrier.

The first man on the scene was Alan Jones, who found de Angelis trapped in his smouldering car. Jones saw the marshals were ill-equipped either to right the car or to put out the growing flames. It took ten minutes to extract de Angelis from his cockpit.

By the time of the Grand Prix later that year the circuit had been shortened to cut out Verriere. After much lobbying, test days were granted the same standards of marshalling and medical cover found at race weekends. But it was too late for de Angelis.

“Going through the flat-out Verriere S-bend at the start of the lap de Angelis lost control of his car â€“ most likely due to a rear wing failure â€“ and went off at such speed that he went over the crash barrier.”

I’d love to know what track it was at :)
Great articles as usual, cheers.

I know qualifying for the Monaco GP is tomorrow but its also race day in the North West 200 in Northern Ireland. Live coverage on the BBC Northern Ireland Website starting at 11am. Road Racing is Motorsport in its purest form and I would highly recommend it to all racing fans.

I’m not trying to kick HRT when they’re down, ’cause I understand just how difficult it has been for them to even get this far into the season, but it is really not on for a F1 car to be legitimately slower than a GP2 car. I love underdogs and I respect HRT for making a go of it as well as the fact they have actually gotten quicker each race, but if Bruno and Karun would be able to improve thier laptimes by hopping into their old GP2 cars instead of their F1 car… That’s really rather bad, isn’t it?

We’ve had much slower cars in the past and GP2 cars haven’t been around that long so we can only make that comparison now.
It isn’t good but with reports about Dallara being a bit tight and that they’re fielding two rookies, I think if those issues are worked through and Bernie can do some magic on the money front they could finally unlock some of their potential. Whether it can be solved seems doubtful right now but let’s be honest, a few weeks before the season did the majority of us think they would make it to Bahrain?

Idly thinking about the race this weekend, and I ruminated that this is the only race held within France, even though it’s not the French Grand Prix.
And of course there are no French drivers on the grid.
Has there ever been a British Grand Prix without any British drivers? To be honest, I’m struggling to think of a time when there hasn’t been at least one Brit in the field for a Grand Prix.
Must also say that Journeyer’s work here has been superb. Excellent writing and thorough research.

Couldn’t really give a damn to be honest. Monte Carlo town is one of my least favourite places on the planet.
But being pedantic let’s say “encircled by France” instead.
I’m far more interested in how many Grand Prix since the World Championship started have been contested without a Brit on the grid. Any idea?

I wholehartedly support ART GP team in its bid for a spot in F1. They have proven their worth in lower series and I think they will be a good addition to the F1 grid. They also know how to pick a talented young driver, they won 3 driver championships in GP2 and all 3 of their champions progressed to F1 next year.

I have been busy with my new job and haven’t been around here much lately.My team is giving me alot to cheer about this season!I would like to say hello to everyone…especially Keith,Steph,Katy,TommyB,Prisoner Monkeys,Ned Flanders,wasiF1 and GMan.